Day Fifteen, Sam's Entry

More editing. We're almost there, having picked out the music we're gonna start with and we've decided how to censor the movie to make it PG-13. Instead of beeping out the profanity, I recorded random words which we'll play over them. Good times. 

Day Fourteen, Sam's Entry

Editing continues. We've managed to get it to under thirty minutes, which will be the version we display on Wednesday. At some point, if possible, we'll make a shorter version which we will put on Youtube. Other than that, not much happened. The process of editing is turning out not to be as intense and thought-provoking about the project as I thought it would be. I suspect that's because we've already thought about all of this stuff at length. Because we are so genius.

In other news, Austin Bening has officially forfeited his stake in Blog Race '09, because he is dumb. Sam wins the trophy. Hooray.

Day Thirteen, Sam's Entry

We just finished filming our conclusion bit for the video today. We realize we're going to have to write reaction papers as part of the project itself, but we felt like this was necessary as otherwise the film would just end all of a sudden. We came to some interesting conclusions.

The stuff I talked about mostly had to do with how the internet is wearing away at people's personal relationships and their ability to interact with other people face-to-face in a meaningful way. So much of getting to know another person is the way you react to their quirks and physical traits, not to mention the way they talk. This stuff can all get lost in blogs or other text online.

This stuff applies to our generation in particular. We're the ones who are really embracing these new methods of communicating, and it presents an interesting paradox. With just a cell phone, people can be constantly connected to other people, but they aren't really connecting. They're good ways to keep in touch, sure, but it's hard to base meaningful relationships on text messages and facebook wall posts.

Austin talked more about the idea that people are very much afraid of rejection. We don't say hi to people who look interesting on the street or hot girls at parties because we're afraid of what they might say. And that means we're shutting ourselves out of so many different opportunities for such a stupid reason.

In addition, we both came to the conclusion that loneliness is a choice. The only thing keeping you from talking to other people is you. Which is to say, get over that fear of rejection and take a chance. The worst that could happen is you experience an awkward moment, and if that happens, it'll be good practice, because life is just full of them.

I don't want to say too much more because we cover all this in the video, which we will be posting to youtube, in addition to a longer version that we'll display at the project showcase. Stay tuned.

Day Twelve, Sam's Entry

Not much to say about today (or for the rest of this week) as we're going to be editing for most of the time. This process does lend itself to plenty of introspection, though, as we're basically going to be watching and re-watching what we've done, and then watching it again.

For example, during our conversation with Bob at the Sunrise retirement home, while we were talking about the courts and the system of checks and balances, one of the attendants, a guy in an orange shirt, said as he was passing by, "It's to keep the USR out of our USA." All any of us could do was laugh nervously. Later, and completely out of nowhere, he talked about how he just hopes they give police and firefighters all the money they need. It was such a sharp contrast between Bob, who as an older person is expected to be sort of out of it but seemed very much his own man, and the attendant, who was maybe in his forties and didn't seem all that bright, really.

We're going to go out for one more day, I think, and the rest of the time will be devoted to editing and composing our final reactions about the project. There's also this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VcV6Jvhso4

For the record, it wasn't my idea.